Caves & Cave Passages Named After Songs

[Mark Wright]

Following on from some of the stories of cave passages named after Stranglers tracks, I named the exposed traverse I originally climbed over the top of Cliff Cavern in Speedwell 'Risky Business' from SWAMP by the Talking Heads.

Mark

[MarkS]

And don't forget the "Road To Nowhere" that you named after exploring the huge continuation at the top of that climb in Mulu.

[Mark Wright]

The traverse that you belayed me across to get into 'Road to Nowhere' was also deserving of the name 'Risky Business' if I hadn't already used it in Cliff Cavern.

Mark

[Duck ditch]

There is a cave called youlapa cave. I think.  Which is a theme.  Deb I think drew up the survey and asked me what to call it as I was one of the original explorers.  I said I have no memories of the passage.  So she called it no memories after a song which was knocking around camp at the time.  I have no memories of who sung it so I had to google it.  Her it Is.

[Mark Wright]

During the late 1980s we were exploring Orcan Hole in the Dachstien. Many of the passages, including Candys Case and The 39 Steps were named after episodes of the Mike Hammer TV detective series featuring Stacy Keach. 

[Pitlamp]

The traverse that you belayed me across to get into 'Road to Nowhere' was also deserving of the name 'Risky Business' if I hadn't already used it in Cliff Cavern.

Mark

Blimey - I was involved on the Cliff Cavern project and I never actually knew that, so thanks for posting. I always thought it was because the traverse you put up was slippery and treacherous and because the bolt runners were generally in unreliable choss. That was a good bit of exploration. I fell off it some time afterwards, on the day the sump at the end was dived. I remember deciding it was very well named!

Whilst we're on a Peak system theme:

"White Feather Aven" in Far Sump (a Marillion song - it was on the Walkman whilst kitting up to dive before climbing it).

"The Ride of the Valkyries" - 60 m pitch in Far Sump Extension. It just seemed right, for such a grand shaft.

[Mark Wright]

Blimey - I was involved on the Cliff Cavern project and I never actually knew that, so thanks for posting. I always thought it was because the traverse you put up was slippery and treacherous and because the bolt runners were generally in unreliable choss.

Indeed.

If I remember correctly, I did the traverse on a midweek evening with Andy Goddard and then you joined us at the weekend when we all dropped into 'Joint Effort' with the late Frank Brown. I'd forgotten to fill my Fizma with water before I started the climb up Cliff Cavern and had to undo my harness at the top and take a piss to fill it!!

Mark

[Pitlamp]

Yes - you waited for the other folk. Nice one that; it's how it should be.   

[Pitlamp]

In fact, wasn't that part of the reason the big continuation was called Joint Effort?

[Mark Wright]

In fact, wasn't that part of the reason the big continuation was called Joint Effort?

It's certainly one explanation for the name.

[pwhole]

Hahah - so who came up with 'Chronoglide Skyway' up at the top of The Ventilator? As that is a Hawkwind tune, if I'm not mistaken. On a half-related tip, one of the few passages I've named was 'Oily Way' in the Pit Props Series - partly as it's very muddy.

[Mark Wright]

I was lucky enough to be the first caver to abseil into 'Hole of the Moon' high on the Benarat cliff above Camp 5 in Mulu. It was named after one of my favourite Waterboys tracks, 'Whole of the Moon'.

I last saw them play at the Fairport Cropredy Convention last year. Here they are playing at the Isle of Wight festival in 2014. 

Mark

[PeteHall]

I would have thought that TOR would have mentioned "WISh you were here" in Reservoir Hole

[Mark Wright]

I remember taking an extended lunch break with a school friend in the Laskys HiFi shop in Sheffield in the late 70s to listen to Wish You Were Here on a very high end music system. I think I'll do the same this afternoon.

Mark 

[pwhole]

God, I bought my first ever 'proper' speakers from there in 1981. I still have them, though the rubber's totally perished on one

[Duck ditch]

There’s a ‘wish you were here’ in Sabah too. 

Has anybody got wet on ‘nasty weather’ pitches in Swan dike.  It’s named from some lyrics in Talking Heads  ‘burning down the house’. 
Meanwhile I think Badlad was in love with Blondie at the time hence ‘parallel lines’  above the pitch. Sorry Pegasus. 🤐
 

[mrodoc]

I would have thought that TOR would have mentioned "WISh you were here" in Reservoir Hole

I was going to mention it but you beat me to it. It is a complex play on words as it was found when Tony Boycott and myself were out of the country when this section was found (opens into the Frozen Deep). Refers to the standard holiday postcard (remember those) message, incorporates the late Willie Stanton's initials (WIS) and the fact that he missed out on the discovery by predeceasing it by two years, and it's a Pink Floyd song I like. One great moment of hearing this song was a drunken evening on the Shongrim Ridge in Meghalaya when a local mine manager called Carling started playing it with Jrat nodding along beside him.

[Mark Wright]

God, I bought my first ever 'proper' speakers from there in 1981. I still have them, though the rubber's totally perished on one

Badlad has a pair of 'proper' speakers with all the rubber intact that he might be willing to offload for a fair price.

[Flotsam]

There is of course the "Route 66" pitch in (New) Rift Pot named by the great DCC Rolling Stones fan, John New of the DCC. I was on the original digging team and didn't like the name but there you are.

[langcliffe]

There was "Dancing in the Dark" somewhere  - was it in the Picos?

[Pie Muncher]

White  Flag, Dido, Notts II.

[mrodoc]

There was "Dancing in the Dark" somewhere  - was it in the Picos?

yes

[Mark Wright]

Another one from Mulu.

'Bed Shaped', about an hour into Moon Cave, Benarat.

[Pitlamp]

There is of course the "Route 66" pitch in (New) Rift Pot named by the great DCC Rolling Stones fan, John New of the DCC. I was on the original digging team and didn't like the name but there you are.

Continental Drift (in the Kingsdale cave system) - partly named after a RS track but also because it follows a prominent fault which, ultimately, geological continental drift was responsible for.

[old spot]

I  thought "smack my pitch up" Was a good name (also Mulu) but I don't think it was allowed on the survey ☹️